Democracy without freedom

November 8, 2006

A day after the U.S. elections, I turned the pages of Islamica magazine to an article by former Malaysian prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim. In his introduction he says:

The 14th century arab historian and founder of sociology, Abdul Rahman ibn Khaldun, postulated that civilizations inevitably collapse from within as a result of corruption, moral decadence, and a disintegration of the institutions of accountability. Four centuries later, Thomas Jefferson offered a similar warning against the abuse of unlimited powers by elected despots and foretold that there would come a time “when corruption in this…[land]…will have seized the heads of government, and be spread by them through the body of the people; when they will purchase the voices of the people, and make them pay the price.”

As the U.S. prepares for their inevitable war against Iran, one must wonder how they can attack a nation for its internal corruption while simultaneously suffering from corruption both internally and internationally. Corrupted Iranian officials only affect their own people, U.S. officials are destroying the entire world, piece by piece.